He was first appointed Louisiana’s Inspector General by Bobby Jindal in January 2008.
Now, nine years later, LouisianaVoice is picking up as yet unconfirmed reports that STEPHEN STREET could be the nominee to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Louisiana.
Corey Amundson has been serving as Acting U.S. Attorney for the nine-parish district since Donald Trump requested the resignations of U.S. Attorneys throughout the U.S., including that of Obama appointee Walt Green last March.
It’s not uncommon for a new administration to clean house upon taking office, especially if the holdovers are from the opposing political party. What is unusual is the length of time it is taking Trump to nominate new appointees.
Street’s office was tainted by his raid on the home of contractor Corey DelaHoussaye under the mistaken assumption that DelaHoussaye was contracted to the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) when in fact, he was contracted to the Livingston Parish Council where Street had no jurisdiction. DelaHoussaye was subsequently exonerated of all charges but never collected all that he said Livingston Parish owed him.
Street’s office also prematurely terminated an investigation into the case of Billy Broussard who was contracted by FEMA to clean a bayou in Calcasieu Parish following Hurricane Rita in 2005. Broussard was instructed by the gravity drainage district in which the canal was located to also remove pre-storm debris, mostly cypress logs, that had sunken to the bottom of the canal over the years. He was told that FEMA would pay for the additional work but FEMA did not and the drainage district left Broussard holding the bag to the tune of about $1 million.
Likewise, it was Street’s office that investigated and found no wrongdoing in the case of two assistant district attorneys in CADDO PARISH applying for a grant to obtain eight automatic M-16 rifles from the Department of Defense’s Law Enforcement Support Office (LESO). The two claimed on their application that they, as part of a Special Investigations Section (SIS), “routinely participate in high-risk surveillance and arrests (sic) activities with the Shreveport Police and Caddo Sheriff.” Persons interviewed from both agencies, however, refuted the claim that SIS employees took part in such operations.
Street also failed to follow through on an investigation into widespread abuses by the Louisiana State Board of Dentistry. The board, with the aid of its investigator who employed questionable methods, was imposing excessively high fines against dentists for relative minor infractions and even bankrupted one dentist who blew the whistle on faulty jaw implants developed by a dentist at the LSU School of Dentistry.
Retired State Trooper Leon “Bucky” Millet said he filed a formal complaint on February 19 with Street’s office against the four State Troopers who drove the state vehicle to San Diego last October but never received an acknowledgement from Street. “I know he received because I sent the complaint by certified return receipt mail,” Millet said.
Street’s office, in response to a November 2016 public records request from LouisianaVoice, provided a list of FUNDS recovered totaling more than $5.3 million since July 1, 2013, for which he claimed credit.
- U.S. v Delrice Augustus, Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS): $155,305;
- U.S. v. Daniel Garcia, Louisiana Economic Development (LED): $900,000;
- U.S. v. Kaneasha Goston, DCFS: $10,023;
- U.S. v. Charlotte Johnson, Office of the Governor: $99,874;
- U.S. v. Winn Johnson, Louisiana Board of Cosmetology: $1,575;
- U.S. v. Matthew Keith, LED: $1.2 million;
- U.S. v. George Kostuch, Department of Revenue (LDR): $161,850;
- U.S. v. Corey Polk, DCFS: $30,760;
- U.S. v. Gregory Walker (no agency provided): $1,833,619;
- State of Louisiana v. Theresa Burris, Town of Arcadia: $49,829;
- State of Louisiana v. Deborah Loper, Department of Health and Hospitals: $1,018,423.
Of course, the recovery of funds is quite different from orders of restitution, which was what each of these cases was. An order of restitution means little if there are no funds to be recovered.
“We have no information regarding amounts collected by those office and we receive none of the funds,” said OIG General Counsel Joseph Lotwick in a letter to LouisianaVoice.
In the Loper case, for example, most of that money had disappeared into slot machines at area casinos so any real chance of restitution is, for all intents and purposes, non-existent.
The LouisianaVoice request was made pursuant to Street’s claim for an accounting of public funds recovery stemming from OIG investigations.
What Street’s office did not say, the difficulty of actually collecting notwithstanding, is that the OIG’s role in many of the above investigations was secondary to the U.S. Attorney’s role and restitution payments, if any, are made through either U.S. Probation or, in the case of the state’s being the lead prosecutor, to Louisiana Probation and Parole.
LouisianaVoice attempted to obtain confirmation of the reports that Street was up for the position from both U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy and from Street but received no response from either.
One law enforcement official, while saying Street was largely ineffective as inspector general, said the U.S. Attorney’s post could be a fit. “What you have to look at is who he appoints as his first assistant,” he said.
“Do you remember Eddie Jordan? He was the U.S. Attorney in New Orleans and got the credit for convicting Edwin Edwards. But his First Assistant was Jim Letten. Jordan went on to become New Orleans District Attorney and was a disaster. It’s the First Assistant U.S. Attorney who gets the job done. The U.S. Attorney just goes around making speeches and Street might be good at that.”
Whatever gets him out of the IG’s office.
Middle District or Western District?
Second paragraph of story.
I saw that. Headline said Western, story said Middle. I was just trying to clear that up.
Jim Letten did get Edwin Edwards but then some of his own people in his office returned the favor and got him. As far as I am concerned, Jim Letten will always be “the man” but because we live in corruptville- looney- toon Louisiana the bad guys always win in the end.
Things never really change, they just get shuffled around some to try to confuse everyone. Thank God there are still some of us still smart enough to see them before they even get to where they are going.
Official quoted in post: “The U.S. Attorney just goes around making speeches and Street might be good at that.”
I’ve not been impressed with videos I’ve seen of his speeches, but I am going to speculate that the main requirement will be unwavering loyalty to the POTUS, So, if he has that he qualifies.
Since you brought up video I thought I would have to share my one on one with Mr. Street. My question to him was in regards to a letter that was sent to him by (GOHSEP) which if he would’ve followed up the OIG’s Office would have uncovered GOHSEP and FEMA fraud, I still to this day do not understand, it was handed to him on a SilverPlatter (I had done all the work in getting the evidence). The evidence would’ve also uncovered the cover up in regards to what has become immediate threat to life, which is neglect with the drainage in Louisiana. I’m sure it would’ve been a similar case to what has happened in Flint. It’s no secret this guy does not like whistleblowers!!
Good video.
The last sentence in your post is ironic. I was there when the office was created with Bill Lynch as the first Inspector General. Whistle blowers were exactly what he was looking for, but there was so little trust in state government when the office was first created few came forward. I wonder what Mr. Street’s basis is for opening cases?
I could write a book on Stephen Street, his ineptitude, his kowtowing to the direct orders of Bobby Jindal to pursue utterly hopeless cases while simultaneously sugar coating initial reports wherein his investigators (whom I found little fault with and cannot blame them for flying the coop when they realized how weak Street is and his TOTAL lack of any backbone) wanted to have law enforcement make arrests down to the final report offering mere “suggestions for improvement.” Instead, I will just make several itemized bullet points and let it go:
Steven Street:
1. Pursued an utterly hopeless case against Murphy Painter which was an unmitigated disaster costing U. S. taxpayers upwards of $1 million, not to mention $400,000 Louisiana taxpayers had to pay for Painter’s defense (plus an ungodly amount in legal fees defending Painter’s ongoing civil litigation).
2. Declined to pursue $58 million in well-documented FEMA fraud irregularities identified by Corey delaHoussaye but nevertheless charging headstrong (to include 5 a.m. guns-drawn raid) on delaHoussaye’s house entailing $6,000 in reported charges for work allegedly not performed (out of $2 million in billings).
3. Personally threatened to charge me criminally for merely referencing that his office carelessly left behind a workpaper clearly compromising the identity of a complainant (which it did). The reference was to Jindal’s then-Head of Boards and Commissions, Sarah Olcott-Allen, and Street stated to me, “If we get known as an agency who can’t be depended upon to keep the identity of informants confidential, we’re out of business, Robert.”
4. Piggybacks off of Daryl Purpera’s work (and WAFB in one instance) and claims credit for their efforts as if he’d done that himself (state employee wastes on unused airline tickets).
5. Demonstrated the ultimate Harry Truman performance in Painter’s civil trial when, on the witness stand, he said, “I have no knowledge of this case. You will have to speak to my investigator.”
6. Had no defense to the fact Painter’s lead investigator, Shane Evans (whom Painter is suing) admitted on the stand, “I did nothing but write down what Brant Thompson said,” in terms of Painter being “manic depressive, out of control, and selectively enforcing alcohol statutes.” Evans admitted it was based on his written statement quoting Thompson (which Evans admitted he’d made “no effort whatsoever” to corroborate) that Painter was summoned to the Governor’s Office where he was fired later that day. The current commentary on Thompson in Tom’s features on the State Fire Marshall’s Office speak volumes about his credibility in making the statements he made entailing Painter.
7. Pursued the EXACT OPPOSITE career path of many highly successful attorneys by first serving as a defense attorney (he was defense Counsel for Carl Cleveland in the infamous Larry Bankston et. al. criminal trial) and, seeing how he could not cut it as a defense attorney, plopped down at the Attorney General’s Office (employer of last resort for pathetic attorneys). In contrast, GOOD attorneys will “cut their teeth” at an agency like the AG’s Office and, when they prove themselves as solid attorneys, become much sought-after defense attorneys.
8. Loses all composure when confronted by a small-time blogger like myself on issues such as those I’ve itemized here and has meltdowns to include labeling me “Exhibit A,” while he TOTALLY avoids my question!
The U. S. Attorneys have just completed an excellent performance in the case of U. S. Government v. Jessie Roberts, III (Ruston Dentist who engaged in insider trading to make a $686,000 profit on Shaw stock). The case is SOLID and, if the jury doesn’t convict, it won’t be because the Government didn’t put on one hell of a case! Who led that investigation? The FBI. In the words of one of Painter’s defense attorneys, Al Robert, Jr., stated to Judge Brady (outside the presence of the jury): “Your honor, this is not the FBI. This is the OIG. These people do not know what they are going!” Robert was 100% correct, and that fact was demonstrated by an utterly laughable case entailing Painter vs. a strong solid case where the FBI led the investigation against Roberts and which went to the jury today.
God help us if Steven Street is named the next U. S. Attorney General. If there was an organized market to short the stock of the U. S. Attorney’s Office and profit off botched prosecutions, I would short the stock immediately upon the announcement he is taking over!
Mr. Burns, I was about agree with you till you attacked me personally, but I trust you meant “criminal defense attorneys’. I served under Guste and Ieyoub at Risk Management and my mentor was Tom Aswell. Street was in over his bar number. He fell for the Jindalite/Teepell Ethics crap and he will be appointed by Jindal/Trump as soon as they get this silly Russian investigation out of the limelight and Teepell/Jindal/Perkins caliphate praises God, and his resume will make him walk on water. love always ron thompson
Ah, you must be referencing such brilliant AG attorneys as:
1. Michael Vallen, who can be seen here espousing nonsense entailing Louisiana’s Open Meeting Laws: https://youtu.be/pIjtvGprCD0. Vallen demonstrates the absolute epitome of unparalleled incompetence in that brief video clip. The fact that he could demonstrate such incompetency as a representative of the very agency that is supposed to enforce the freaking open meetings laws is mind-numbingly unfathomable!!!
2. Lindsay Hunter, who was so brazen as to think she could get away with issuing an on-the-fly instanter subpoena until I (as a pro se defendant) crushed her little fanny (and that of your hero Larry S. Bankston) in court once, based on her guidance (which she had no business whatsoever even giving since she was supposed to serve as an administrative law judge and was NOT serving as the attorney for the LALB) to file an ill-advised “writ of attachment.”: http://www.auctioneer-la.org/WritAttach.html. You can see on the link I defeated the court filing via a mere three-page opposition memorandum whereas your good buddy Larry S. Bankston (the same one who got Gov. Edwards in a mess on Capitol Hill: http://www.soundoffla.com/?p=668) filed an invoice into the public record stating he billed for 16 hours trying to get a judgment against me over the ill-advised “writ.” Pretty bad when a veteran attorney like Bankston (who wanted to assess me the $2,000 or so in legal fees he bilked the LALB for in that ill-advised “writ”) is defeated resoundingly in court by a pro se defendant like myself via a 3-page opposition memo, huh (you can see the opposition memo at the preceding link)?
3. Richard McGimsey, who was revealed to have recommended the hiring of an attorney to pursue Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips’ auction license for making public records requests to substantiate payroll fraud on the part of Sandy Edmonds (the same one your buddy, Larry S. Bankston, went to the wall defending engaging in the practice): https://youtu.be/fYUSVoVbyi8. I’m not joking!!! Simply watch the 2+ minute video! Anna Dow SAYS McGimsey has “given clearance” to pursue Phillips’ auction license for making public records requests! That kind of rivals Billy Broussard being placed under restraining order when the Calcasieu Parish Police Jury and a Drainage District realizes he’s on the verge of nailing them for fraud (just as Phillips was on the verge of nailing Edmonds on Payroll fraud). Is McGimsey, who got hired by Jay Dardenne, an example you wish to cite as one of those “stellar” AG attorneys?
So, there’s three video clips of unparalleled ineptitude by three very specific attorneys employed by the Attorney General’s Office (two of whom are now gone with the ouster of Caldwell). Can you provide me evidence of stellar performances by those you claim are so great, or is all you can do is make the assertion that I am “ignorant?”
My comment about the AG’s Office being the “employer of last resort” is NOT mine but a repeat of numerous highly-regarded and successful attorneys who all make that statement, not in jest, but in total seriousness. I have also been in Judge Michael Caldwell’s courtroom when he has made very unflattering commentary about attorneys at the AG’s Office (saying anyone who relies upon guidance from them “gets what has been paid for”).
In the rare instance I find a quality attorney at the AG’s Office (and so far, I’ve only experienced one), I give them proper credit for their ability: http://www.soundoffla.com/?p=226. You’ll have to watch the video to see who that attorney is whom I held out for special recognition, but she is top-notch and really stood out heads-and-shoulders above any other ones I encountered at the AG’s Office, and I’ve encountered the same with her in being on Gov. Edwards’ top staff. It’s too bad she’s going to need to start pushing her resume in about a year as the curtain draws on his tenure as Governor because he sure as hell is not getting another four years.
Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not state that I feel your comment about Tom’s post on Doss and Manzella was inferior journalism. To the contrary, it was very efficient at getting a resignation from someone who needed to be removed ASAP. Was it shameful? Yes! I don’t recall any of us telling him to go attend a movie on LSP time with a colleague on the Commission, then (against regulations) drive a state-issued vehicle after having consumed one (perhaps more) large mug of beer, check into a swank hotel to be charged to the agency, etc. It was efficient journalism is what it was! Now it’s up to your boy JBE to decide Manzella’s fate. She should be ashamed to even show her face at another meeting, but I’ve found few of JBE’s appointees have any meaningful shame!
Love always (and always enjoy bantering with you Ron, even if it means I occasionally “piss you off”), Robert Burns
And after cocktails and watching Trump,, Mr. Burns, I want to make it clear that I agree with most of your book, but your assignations that “pathetic attorneys” flopp down at the AG’s office really pisses me off. That is a pathetic way of expressing yourself and showing an incredible ignorance like the Arrogant asshole Donald Trump. I served with an a bunch of great and accomplished lawyers at government service and they need no defense from me nor cheap and ignorant shots from you . Learn how to communicate. Love always ron thompson